Cassini Completes Primary Mission to Saturn
	Exactly four years ago the Cassini-Huygens mission reached the Saturnian system and entered orbit around the ringed planet, in order to make a series of observations that would astonish the world. It is probably one of the most successful robotic missions to one of the gas giants conducted by NASA and the ESA and was concluded yesterday, as the US space agency stated that the spacecraft had accomplished its primary objective and would emba ... [read more >>]
	02 July 2008, 03:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Perturbations in Saturnian F Ring Caused by Moonlet Collisions
	A team of researchers from the UK states that Saturn's F ring is the most dynamic of all other rings, since it can change its features either in only a few hours or in a couple of years, probably due to large scale collisions taking place inside it. If this is truly the case, then the further study of the processes taking place inside it could help astronomers understand the key interactions taking place during the early planet format ... [read more >>]
	06 June 2008, 02:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Scientists Discover Saturnian Atmospheric Oscillation
	The discovery comes in the outcome of 22 years of continuous observations of the temperature variations of the second biggest planet in the solar system, Saturn, which has been the subject of the longest temperature study ever conducted on an extraterrestrial body. Similar atmospheric temperature oscillations have been recorded in our planet's atmosphere (it occurs every two years), in Jupiter's upper atmosphere (every four Earth ... [read more >>]
	08 May 2008, 03:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Jupiter's Rings
	Although they are not as visible as Saturn's beautiful rings of particles, Jupiter's rings were in fact discovered in 1979 during the first Voyager mission. Until 1995, when the Galileo spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter, scientists had in fact no image of the thin, mysterious features around our solar system's largest planet, which were thought at the time to be created by matter stirred up by collisions between Jupite ... [read more >>]
	05 May 2008, 08:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Electric Storm Has Been Raging Saturn for Five Months
	When it comes to gas giants, nothing is small. This also applies in the case of the electrical storm dominating the southern areas of Saturn for the last five months or so, the longest storm recorded to date and capable of producing lightning discharges some 10,000 times more powerful than those observed on Earth. "We saw similar storms in 2004 and 2006 that each lasted for nearly a month, but this storm is longer-lived by far. An ... [read more >>]
	30 April 2008, 03:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Life May be Present on Saturn's Enceladus
	While looking for evidence of life on other bodies in the solar system, researchers often evaluate the degree of habitability relying on the presence of water, sunlight, oxygen and so on. However, in the last decades, we came to learn that none of these three basic ingredients is absolutely required in order to sustain life. For example, on Earth, microbes may be found several kilometers underground, living without the need for oxygen or l ... [read more >>]
	21 April 2008, 04:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini to Whiz Around Saturn Until 2010
	NASA announced, in a recent statement, that the Cassini mission was extended by at least two years, in order to conduct more detailed studies of Saturn's exotic moons. The Cassini spacecraft along with the Huygens probe was launched into space in October 1997 and arrived at the Saturnian system in June 2004. Its original mission was scheduled to span over a period of four years, meaning that it will officially end in the mon ... [read more >>]
	16 April 2008, 04:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Twins of Saturn and Jupiter Found in Distant Star System
	During the span of the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting that took place last week in Belfast, astronomers revealed the latest results of their studies. One of the scientists present there, Martin Dominik from the St Andrews University, pointed out that he and his team discovered a distant star system bearing two planets relatively similar to our two largest gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, orbiting around the cen ... [read more >>]
	07 April 2008, 02:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA: Cassini Out of Our Control
	Don't worry. The famous probe is not out of control, however NASA will turn over control of the spacecraft to students during June 10, in a contest with the role of raising the interest of the youth in science. The contest will be attended by students from the 5th to 12th grades, that will write essays to NASA in order to determine which of the three science targets will be photographed by the orbiter on June 10. Usually, engineer ... [read more >>]
	05 April 2008, 04:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

See Saturn, the Moon and Pleiades on the Sky this Month
	The night sky will entertain us this month with a splendid combination of stars, complemented by the Moon and Saturn. Starting with 8 April, star gazers will be able to view the Pleiades star cluster rising above the western skies after the sunset, as the Moon passes through the first quarter, the full moon phase and third quarter. While the Moon is very bright in this year period, shadowing most of the bright stars in its vicinity, it pas ... [read more >>]
	01 April 2008, 06:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Relentless Storm
	Back here on Earth, we may experience some dangerous storms from time to time; however, they are nothing compared to the storms taking place on gas giants such as Saturn or Jupiter. These storms apparently never stop and are so big that the whole Earth would fit inside of them. Saturn's storm, for example, has a cyclone-like eye about 4,200 kilometers in diameter, with walls towering up to 70 kilometers above the surroundin ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2008, 04:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini Finds Precursors for Life on Enceladus
	The results of the fly-by made by the Cassini orbiter around Saturn's moon Enceladus reveal that the plume of water vapor above its surface is rich in primitive organic molecules necessary for the appearance and evolution of life as we know it. On 12 March the probe was sent in a fly-by at an altitude of 50 kilometers above the surface, to make detailed measurements of the watery plume regarding composition, density and particles size ... [read more >>]
	27 March 2008, 04:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Titan May Hide a Water Ocean
	The moon Titan is the largest of all about 60 natural satellites orbiting around Saturn. In fact, it is larger than the smallest planet in the solar system, Mercury. Also, Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a thick atmosphere around it, filled with organic molecules, precursors to the appearance and evolution of life. Its surface is covered with lakes of natural gas in quantities so large that a single lake of this ty ... [read more >>]
	21 March 2008, 04:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Rings Are Vanishing
	Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and probably the most beautiful of all, aside Earth maybe. Its beautiful rings are simply breathtaking, thus even some of the most experienced astronomers cannot help themselves from taking a peek through the telescope from time to time to see its rings. However, something surprising is taking place now. It looks like Saturn's rings are slowly vanishing. The effect has been notic ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2008, 09:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Tethys Had an Ocean
	What is now a massive ball of ice around Saturn, the moon Tethys had an ocean at some point in its past, say researchers at the University of California present at a major science conference in Houston. Tethys is only one of the 60 or so natural satellites orbiting around Saturn, has a medium size and an average density close to that of pure water ice in normal atmospheric conditions. The theory that it might have had an ocea ... [read more >>]
	15 March 2008, 08:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini Takes a Plunge Over Enceladus
	In the outcome of previous observations showing that Saturn's moon Enceladus ejects matter out of the geysers on its surface, the Cassini spacecraft executed, on Wednesday, a fly-by through the water ice plume hovering above it. During the swing, Cassini took numerous pictures of the surface of the moon and made several measurements related to it characteristics, such as composition, density, speed, size and others. Alth ... [read more >>]
	14 March 2008, 05:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini to Explore Enceladus' Water Plume
	The Cassini spacecraft is scheduled tomorrow for a unique fly-by around Saturn's moon Enceladus, to probe in detail the nature of the water plume originating from geysers on the surface in regions around the south pole of the moon. During the fly-by, Cassini will reach an altitude of only 50 kilometers above the surface, while the plume can extend as much as 200 kilometers into space. In the outcome of the discovery of water ... [read more >>]
	11 March 2008, 05:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Moon Rhea May Have Rings, Cassini Suggests
	The Saturn system is well known for its unique configuration. Being the second largest planet in the solar system, Saturn distinguishes itself from the other gas giants through a large ring of debris orbiting around it and the large number of moons – over 60 moons. Now Cassini promises to add yet another unique feature in the form of the first known moon to have its own ring system orbiting around it. The celestial body in questi ... [read more >>]
	07 March 2008, 02:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Find Scaled Solar System
	The newly discovered solar system lies 5,000 light years away from Earth and seems to contain two gas giants slightly smaller that the two biggest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, evidence that solar systems similar to our own might be more abundant in the Milky Way than previously thought. One of the planets has about 70 percent of the mass of Jupiter, while the other has a mass of about 90 percent of that of Sat ... [read more >>]
	28 February 2008, 04:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Look Towards Saturn Now! The Timing is Ideal
	Although it is not the biggest planet in the solar system, it is certainly one of the most spectacular: truly a miniature solar system, with more than 63 moons orbiting around it and a beautiful ring of debris hovering above its equator. A unique feature, even though Uranus also has a dim ring around it. As of 24 of February, Saturn will be in an ideal position on the night sky for ground observation. It is currently in the L ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 04:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

It's Raining Methane on Titan!
	New observations with the Cassini orbiter show that Saturn's moon Titan contains large quantities of hydrocarbon liquid, about a few hundred times more than the natural reserves found here on Earth. Hydrocarbon gas condenses into Titan's dense atmosphere, then it is raining down on its surface much in the same way water rain falls on our planet, and the liquid is collected in vast deposits to form lakes and dunes of nat ... [read more >>]
	14 February 2008, 02:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Don't Miss: Feb. 20 Total Moon Eclipse!
	Pray for good weather on February 20 and you might just observe the third total lunar eclipse of the year. The phenomenon will be seen without experiencing any difficulties in the North and South American continents, as the Moon will occupy an excellent position in the sky relative to those areas. If you don't live in the American continents, don't worry about it too much; Europe, Africa and some parts of the Western Asia will al ... [read more >>]
	07 February 2008, 10:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Vacuum Cleaner
	It is a well known fact that Saturn's ring E is interacting with the moon Enceladus, and might have been created by drawing material ejected through cryo-volcanism phenomenons taking place of the surface of the moon. However, new observations conducted by NASA's Cassini orbiter reveal that icy plumes of material could also be delivered to the most distant ring in relation to Enceladus, ring A, situated 100,000 kilometer ... [read more >>]
	07 February 2008, 03:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Water on Enceladus?
	Images of one of Saturn's moon, brought back by NASA's Cassini orbiter, have recently spawn some of the most fierce debates regarding the solar system exploration program. German astrophysicists argue that there is conclusive evidence that Enceladus, a small moon measuring only 504 kilometers in diameter, may have liquid water beneath its surface. Enceladus presents a surface covered by a bright white shell of water ... [read more >>]
	07 February 2008, 02:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Why Are We Still Using Rocket Engines for Space Travel?
	More than half of a century has passed since the first U.S. artificial satellite was lifted into space, inaugurating a long series of space launches. However, while most of the technology used to build the launch vehicles progressed at an extremely high rate, the design of the trusty rocket engine remained mostly unchanged. Don't expect anything spectacular in the future either, Clark Hawk director of the Propulsion Researche Center a ... [read more >>]
	31 January 2008, 11:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Few Facts About the Gas Giants
	Just before 2006, Pluto was still considered the most remote planet in the solar system. However, due to the discovery of a series of objects that had similar sizes and characteristics to that of Pluto, the object has been demoted from its status of planet to that of Kuiper belt object, or minor planet. Currently, the solar system consists of eight planets, four inner rocky planets and four gas giants. Jupiter is the close ... [read more >>]
	15 January 2008, 09:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Hotspots Baffle Astrophysicists
	A surprising new finding of the Cassini-Huygens probe reveals that Saturn presents spinning hot spots at each pole, that can resist even to the toughest polar winters, but whatever causes them seems to surpass scientific explanations so far. Saturn's hotspots, located in its gaseous atmosphere hovering over the poles, are considered to be hot air structures surrounding that respective area. Data sent back by Cassini ac ... [read more >>]
	04 January 2008, 02:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Great News, Titan Has Mountains!
	Those of you who got bored of climbing all the mountains on Earth might consider an exotic experience on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. I heard they've got some mighty good-looking mountains there. Well, the Cassini-Huygens probe has once again exceeded the expectations and done what no other space probe studying the Saturn planetary system had done before. With the help of the Radar instruments on board, the probe was a ... [read more >>]
	20 December 2007, 05:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini Confirms 25 Year Old Prediction
	It seems that the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens has been rather busy lately, as scientists are now flooding us with new information regarding planet Saturn. The spacecraft, designed in a collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, is currently being operated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and has recently discovered that Saturn presents a doughnut shape around it, which consists of an electric field of plasma. A simi ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 08:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn Guards Closely Its Secrets
	The most elusive constant related to the planet that has not been yet accurately determined is its spin rotation, as the gas giant is covered with a thick layer of clouds, which prevents most of the instruments aboard the Cassini probe to make detailed observations. Thus, most of the methods used to measure the spin rotations of gas giants use indirect observations of the magnetic field generated in the core of the planet. As they passe ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 06:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Planetary Rings Older Than the Sun
	Saturn's rings are one of its most distinct features, and although other planets in the solar system present rings of particles, they are not so obvious. They where first predicted to exist in the middle of the 17th century by Christian Huygens and viewed for the first time by Galileo Galilei with his telescope. Even today, the rings that surround the equatorial region of the planet can be relatively easy viewed with a pair of regular ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 03:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

First Evidence of Possible Alien Life
	Well, there is evidence of water on Enceladus' surface but the real question is still whether there are any life forms present there or not. While doing a survey of Saturn's tiny moon, the Cassini-Huygens probe detected a hot spot on the old moon's surface, which usually has a temperature lower than that of cold ice. The Cassini-Huygens probe has as primary mission the study of the Saturn planet and its moon Titan. The ho ... [read more >>]
	11 December 2007, 03:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Rings Reveal Strange Flying-Saucers
	Such strange flying-saucer-shaped objects mostly common in Saturn's rings have puzzled scientists. It appears that they form from gathering particles of ice and dust from the rings, much in the same way planets form by buiding up matter from accretion disks spinning around stars, and could provide us with valuable insight on how planetary systems form. The planets in our solar system, such as Earth and Jupiter, orbit the Sun in an ... [read more >>]
	07 December 2007, 02:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Moon Reveals the Presence of Organic Substances
	Data collected by the Cassini spacecraft shows the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of the second largest moon in the solar system, Saturn's Titan. Launched in 1997, the Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004; it had several missions, amongst which the study of the surface of Titan, and of its dense atmosphere. The discovery of these electrically charged ions reveals the existence of organic substances [ADM ... [read more >>]
	29 November 2007, 05:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Solar Winds Cause Shifts in Saturn's Radio Pulses
	Scientists trying to measure Saturn's precise rotation rate have been experiencing difficulties in timing the radio pulses that the planet emits. Determining the precise rotation rate for planets with no solid surface like the gas giants has proven extremely difficult. The method they have been using consists of using the radio pulses emitted by the planet as a metronome, but new measurements suggest the method is not accurate since i ... [read more >>]
	08 November 2007, 03:24GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Enigma of the Saturn Ring's Origin Solved
	Saturn is the second planet in size in the Sun System, with a diameter 10 times that of the Earth, but the gas giant is famous for its beautiful ring, whose origin remains an enigma. The ring comprises floating wide, flat discs of ice, varying in size from dust to over 10 ft (3 m) across. Some believe they rooted in the same gas and dust that formed the planet, others think that the ring's icy chunks are pieces of moons resulted f ... [read more >>]
	25 October 2007, 03:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Frozen Tropical Paradise from Titan
	Have you ever imagined a tropical paradise at -274 °F (- 170 °C)? But on Earth…as such thing does exist on the Saturn's largest moon, Titan, the only moon in the Sun System large enough to have an atmosphere. Methane rainfall soaks dunes of ice or tar on Titan's arid deserts, like a frozen mirror image of Earth's tropics. "You have all these things that are analogous to Earth. At the same time, it's foreign and ... [read more >>]
	03 October 2007, 04:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Great Disappointment: No Possible Life on Enceladus
	Disappointment for the alien life hunters. The only plausible model explaining the arrangement of fractures and ridges documented by Cassini on Enceladus, Saturn’s icy moon, shows no liquid water and thus an unlikely environment for life. In June 30, 2004, the Cassini spacecraft has detected a south polar region of Enceladus with a complex pattern of fractures and ridges, high heat radiation and geyser-like plumes made of ice crystals a ... [read more >>]
	20 August 2007, 04:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Discovered Saturn's 60th Moon
	Saturn is a curious planet, not because it's a gas giant, the second largest planet in the solar system, or because of the fact that its equatorial and polar diameters differ by almost 10%. The most interesting aspect of this giant is the number of satellites. People often enjoy gazing at the Moon, our only natural satellite that inspired so many poems, love stories and movies. But what would it be like to look at sixty moons? Ast ... [read more >>]
	20 July 2007, 04:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Radioactivity Gave Saturn's Moon Strange Walnut Shape
	Although we are used to the round or oval shape of most celestial bodies, some of them are just defying the cosmic laws and display some really weird characteristics. Saturn's moon, Iapetus, is one of these strange appearances, because it looks like a walnut instead of a sphere. The third-largest moon of Saturn is known for its strange exterior aspect, having a unique equatorial ridge so high that it visibly distorts the ... [read more >>]
	18 July 2007, 06:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Solve the Mystery of Giant Space Sponge Orbiting Saturn
	Hyperion, a satellite of Saturn, is one of the strangest moons in our solar system, whose behavior and composition has puzzled astronomers for many years. This moon really looks like a giant cosmic sponge, but there are many more weird properties that have just recently been explained. A highly irregular body in the solar system, it doesn't even resemble a sphere and is marked by a huge crater on the surface, approximately [ADMARK ... [read more >>]
	05 July 2007, 03:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Could the Mysterious Song Coming from Titan Be Caused by an Underground Ocean?
	Saturn's satellite, Titan, is 50 percent larger than our Moon in diameter, and it's even larger by diameter and mass than all known dwarf planets, like Mercury, even though the latter is more than twice as massive. One of the satellite's curiosities is a strange radio signal emitted at an extremely low frequency, detected by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe as it descended to the moon's surfa ... [read more >>]
	14 June 2007, 09:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Two Small Saturn Moons Found More Active Than Previously Thought
	Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is a gas giant and the second largest in the solar system. As of 2007, a total of 57 individual moons have been identified around the planet, plus 3 unconfirmed moons that could be small dust clumps in the rings. 35 moons have been named. Many of the moons are very small: out of 57, 31 are less than 10 km in diameter, and another 13 less than 50 km. Tethys and Dione are two small moons, and recent ... [read more >>]
	14 June 2007, 08:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The New View of Titan
	Titan, Saturn's largest satellite, still holds some exciting surprises, as a new set of images from the European Space Agency show. Until very recently, this atmosphere inhibited understanding of Titan's surface, but the moon is currently undergoing study by the Cassini-Huygens mission and new information about it is accumulating. Professor John Zarnecki of The Open University led the Surface Science Package (SSP) on Huygens ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2007, 05:17GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn: The Freak Show of The Solar System
	Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is a gas giant and the second largest in the solar system. Its weird properties, its rings and its large number of moons – the precise figure is uncertain – make the Saturnian system a freak show, attracting the attention of amateur and professional astronomers worldwide. First of all, it's not a sphere, being flattened at the poles and bulky at the equator. The Earth is no ... [read more >>]
	02 June 2007, 07:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cassini Images of Sea and Islands on Saturn's Moon, Titan
	The spacecraft Cassini has just sent in clear photos of a sea on Saturn's moon, Titan, captured during the latest flyby. Also visible in the images are various features characteristic of a coastline, like channels, islands and bays. Cassini-Huygens is a space mission consisting of two main elements: the NASA Cassini orbiter, named after the Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini and the ESA Huygens probe, named after ... [read more >>]
	25 May 2007, 03:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Rings Are Not Solid!
	Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, after Jupiter, and also a gas giant. Named after the Roman god Saturnus, it has a prominent system of rings, easy to spot with even a low-end observation equipment. At first glance, Saturn's rings may appear solid when viewed from Earth, due to the density that produces a continuous image. A new set of images provided by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows that, in fact, th ... [read more >>]
	23 May 2007, 02:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

This Week, Learn How to Spot Four Planets in the Night Sky, with the Naked Eye
	This week, we will have a real "traffic jam" in the night sky. Four planets in our solar system plus the Moon will be visible even with the naked eye in the western sky. They are the closest planets to the Earth, but only for a brief period of time in a whole year can they be seen together in the sky. Amateur and professional skywatchers, look out! The big light show will begin about 45 minutes after sundown. You don't ... [read more >>]
	19 May 2007, 07:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Geysers on Saturn's Moon Enceladus Froze All Chances of Life
	The geysers on the Saturn's moon Enceladus are one of the most spectacular shows in our solar system. In 2006, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovered in 2006 plumes of icy water vapors that kept intriguing astronomers ever since. Early theories suggested the geysers could be generated by liquid water under the surface of the satellite that instantly freezes when hurled into space. This led to speculations about the existence of ... [read more >>]
	17 May 2007, 02:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Saturn Speaker's Unique Powering Off System
	It's not extremely powerful and it probably doesn't have a top-notch sound quality either, but damn it looks good. I am talking about Saturn, a USB travel & laptop speaker from Boynq, a Dutch company specialized in high quality and unique designs for PC-accessories and general audio products. What makes Saturn such an exquisite product is the on/off switch. I know it sounds strange to praise a device for its on ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2007, 09:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia